The CRC community is made up of people with extensive and diverse experience in child protection and out-of-home care systems across Australia.

We engage with representatives from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, foster and kinship care providers, child protection advocates, psychologists, social workers, academics and other policy experts.

Our leadership

Jarrod Wheatley, Chair and Co-founder

Jarrod is Chair of the Centre for Relational Care. He is also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Professional Individualised Care, a relationship-based model of out-of-home care. Since 2005 Jarrod has worked in youth sector management, including program development and implementation for refugees in Germany, coordinating a youth service in the Blue Mountains in NSW, as well as establishing the award-winning social venture Street Art Murals Australia. He was named the 2014 Youth Worker of the Year and the 2019 NSW Young Australian of the Year. Jarrod’s passion for social justice drives him to continuously look for sustainable innovation in the social sector.

 

Bernie Shakeshaft, Co-Founder

Bernie is a Co-Founder of the Centre for Relational Care, and the Founder and Director of BackTrack. Early in his career, he saw kids dropping out of school, getting into trouble, and falling through the cracks of a system that couldn't meet their needs. This inspired him to start BackTrack in 2006, with a shed, volunteers, and a mission to keep kids alive, out of jail, and chasing their dreams. BackTrack offers vulnerable young people holistic, flexible, and long-term support through educational, training, and diversionary activities, transitional employment, residential accommodation, and youth work. The BackTrack Network now supports other communities in regional NSW and QLD. Bernie was named Australian of the Year Local Hero (2020).

 

Sophi Bruce, Chief Executive Officer

Sophi is CEO with the Centre for Relational Care and Director of Adaptive Leadership Australia. Sophi's work centres around people, purpose, organisations and systems change. As co-founder of a systems-thinking research centre and a leader of programs and teams across a range of organisations and sectors, Sophi has developed a toolkit of human centred and practice-based methodologies that have directly contributed to national change initiatives and capability uplift in the UK and Australia. She holds an Industry Fellow role with the Institute for Public Policy and Governance at UTS where she spent a decade building leadership capacity across the public sector.

Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, Elder in Residence

Aunty Rhonda is a Gadigal, Bidgigal and Yuin Elder. She is a compassionate advocate in the fields of social justice, human rights self-determination, decolonisation, self-governance, community strengthening and cultural revitalisation for the future generations. She is an Academic with a Masters in Aboriginal Studies, (Social and Emotional Well Being) and is currently pursuing her PhD in Memory, Solidarity and Relationships (Connecting Youth back to Country). In her capacity as the Elder in Residence at the Centre for Relational Care, Aunty Rhonda draws on her many years of cultural, political, historical knowledge and advocacy.

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Our team